By FRANK EGBORO
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, often referred to as the “father of modern science.” He made significant contributions to scientific revolution, including improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, such as the discovery of Jupiter’s four largest moons and the phases of Venus. His works laid the foundation for modern physics and the scientific method, challenging the prevailing geocentric models of the universe. He was the first to use a telescope to study the skies.
His research put him at odds with Aristotelian professors and declared false and erroneous by the Church in 1616. His discovery and findings though considered a masterpiece, enraged the Jesuits, and Galileo was tried before the Inquisition, found guilty of heresy, and put under house arrest for the rest of his life. Put differently, Galileo who professes that the earth rotates around the sun was placed under house arrest and became blind for daring to say what was described in his days as heresy out of ignorance, conspiracy and ‘bad belle’.
Today further research in science has proved that Galileo was right after-all. This kind of misconception, misunderstanding, and ignorance which Galileo suffered is the bane of President Bola Tinubu the campeón of the Lagos political family to date. This is in no way trying to hold brief for Tinubu and his administration but to draw our attention to the fact that we are yet again on the same trajectory or bring-him-down- pattern, like we did to the administrations before him that amounts to clownishness (jesters) or busybody.
For instance, let us assess Tinubu on the template of his political savvy whether he can offer some leadership hope like the late Jimmy Carter, President of America from (1977-1981). Tinubu came into office as President with a commitment of acting truth to power by undertaking necessary age-long reforms that others shied away from, to reposition the country on a sincere part of growth not on a trajectory of ‘ways and means’, fuel subsidy scam plus a dual exchange rate regime that have communicated deceptive growth over the years thereby encouraging our handlers to resort to rebasing the economy as plausible evidence of a growing economy.
Does America and China rebase their economies now and then to justify or convince their citizenry and the global community of economic growth? Rebasing the economy was Buhari’s government ‘yahoo yahoo’ to hoodwink the populace for existential accolade, a path Tinubu would not want to venture if not for the grandstanding of his traducers.
The Lagos political structure revolves around him because from 2007 when his tenure ended as Lagos governor, he has installed virtually all the subsisting administrations from Fashola, Ambode to Sanwo-Olu, the current governor of Lagos State. There was a political family in Lagos before the advent or foray of Tinubu into politics, but it was his acumen and sagacity that transformed a once comatose and uncelebrated political family into the volcanic format it has assumed today. His selfless leadership guidance and the ability to galvanise men and women in leadership and followership has projected him into occupying the number one seat as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the political history of Lagos State. Show us one state in the federation where seamless succession is observed like Lagos. Kudos to Tinubu because he has displayed leadership even in the coupling of APC as a political party that wrestled power from an incumbent President Jonathan in 2015.
Despite the wrangling in the APC to side-line him, he was recognised as the National Leader of the party in spite of the existence of a National Chairman and the President; a position exclusively reserved for him then is conspicuously empty in today’s convoluted APC conglomeration. There is no doubt that someone with this pedigree and credentials will transform the country if supported and not bullied by a selfish and greedy political class made up of vampires sucking life out of our dear nation.
Like Galileo, just 24 months into his tenure, the-bring-him-down-committee emerged even from close political associates. Yes, a furious gang up and conspiracy of all kinds, adducing unsubstantiated allegations of misappropriation, poor governance, cluelessness, heightened insecurity, and all kinds of sundry accusations like they did to Obasanjo, Yar Adua, Jonathan and Buhari before him. If one may ask rhetorically: why the hurry to blacklist and pull down his administration so soon? Are there sundry undertones bordering on selfish interest by political players who feel they are left out of the banquet like some notable political clowns who were once talking from both sides of their mouth but have now suddenly gone because they are partaking in the buffet? I see aggregation of unsolicited megalomanias parading themselves as Messiahs –showing clearly the likelihood of the voice of Jacob, the hand of Esau.
The question we should be asking is what are the states doing with their improved revenue? Are they just throwing ‘owambe parties’ and going overseas for shopping, and surreptitiously pushing all the blame to Tinubu’s Federal Government?
Take it to the bank from me, there is so much corruption and malfeasance at the states. Yes, States Fraud incorporated! Patrick Dele Cole once said “Governors are a fast moving train with no brakes and no drivers. The result is inevitable crash. They have no accountability, no obligation except to themselves. Some of them have sold nearly all their State assets and have left the States littered with unfinished projects”. Babajide Kolade Otitoju of the TVC series ‘Journalist Hangout’ once said that State Governors are the most useless sort of people.
The local government administration that is supposed to serve the ‘grass root’ is a different story entirely. For instance, at the council level it is just about sharing the monthly allocation after the governors have taken their own share as usual and push the blame towards Tinubu as the fall guy. Is Tinubu in-charge of the states and local governments too? The country under Tinubu is going through a planting season and we should remain steadfast, hopeful and supportive devoid of despair because there seems to be rays of hope in the coming years when all the reforms would have matured. All the braggadocio and razzmatazz to feed the populace with divisive theories of blackmail and confusion will not help the country in any way. This was the same way we cried blue murder over the governments before him. According to Jeff Immelt, former CEO of General Electric “Every job appears easy when you not the one doing it”.
Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in 1999 and it was electrifying, having been marooned by military adventurist regimes over the years. But as soon as he settled down to state business, especially with appointment of Ministers, trouble started from the camp of those who felt left out. Such cadenzas went to town with different songs of blackmail recruiting likeminded selfish disciples to spew anger against the government of the day. As the government became older and different shades of policies and actions started emerging, the comments assumed the routine, accusing the Obasanjo government of not taking advice, poor budget implementation, nepotism, highhandedness, corruption, indiscipline, etc. Tenure ended in 2007.
In May, 29, 2007 Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua came to power via an election that was adjudged the worst in history. It was a controversial election and the beneficiary also admitted same. Like Obasanjo he appointed his EXCO and immediately rumbling began from those who felt cheated. They queried the President’s choice of appointees, pointing out that he mostly favoured Northerners from Kano axis. He was nicknamed Mr. Go Slow in his style of governance. Later, they accused the government of high level corruption, cluelessness, lack of political will, lack of priorities, failed projects and general weakness. His death cut short his administration and his Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan completed the four years tenure. The same brush was in use again to tar Jonathan even after he contested and won in 2011. His government was heavily criticised and termed clueless and his appointees seen as people of questionable pedigrees with little track record of past achievements. As it was with First Lady Turai Yar’ Adua so it became of First lady Patience Jonathan, whom they accused of being vulgar with questionable education. His government was voted out of power against the background of organised conspiracy bordering on bullying, heightening insecurity and selfish criticisms like it is today with Tinubu as the 2027 general elections are approaching.
In 2015, Muhammadu Buhari took over from Jonathan with a lot of fanfare being a retired Army General whom they vaunted and presumed will put an end to insecurity and corruption with his highly bloated credentials over the years. He was heavily excoriated because he disgracefully failed to bring down insecurity and corruption according to his traducers. His government came to an end leaving a trail of unresolved issues of governance.
In 2023, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected President and the situation as it was with the other Presidents before him has evolved early with all kinds of routine accusations of poor governance merely two years into his first four years tenure. The critics are saying loud and clear that his policies are not well thought out, assessing his government with the same mindset like they have always done to others before him.
Even if the Almighty Jehovah comes to rule this country we will have something to say in the realm of the usual bullying and criticisms which have become our nature like the story of the scorpion and the frog. So, what is new that we are telling the citizenry and the global community which they have not heard us say about the occupants of Aso Rock Villa.
We paint a picture of El dorado about foreign countries and their governments until we travel there and see that not all that glitters is gold. There are poor infrastructural facilities overseas, rural communities, ghettos, slums and shockingly poor and homeless people virtually sleeping on the streets and makeshift ramshackle like those under bridges in Lagos and other major cities in Nigeria. Let us make a break from our idle past and have a supportive template in our DNA to collaborate with our governments at all levels because we do not have any other country we can call our own except Nigeria. All this hullabaloo and cacophony about the misadventures of Tinubu’s government will not create miracles of paradise as being taunted by his haters. But supporting the government in prayers and physical contributions in ideas and constructive criticisms will do a lot to shape governance into our common good.
Turning our offices, mechanic workshops, homes, market places, campuses, churches, mosques, shrines and even covens into emergency Houses of Assembly, gossiping idly on the polices of government, amounts to joblessness and makes us disciples of confusion. The same voodoo political players who chased Jonathan away, back to Otuoke from Aso Rock are today shamelessly asking Jonathan to come back. This is how low we have degenerated because of feeding bottle politics practised by diaper wearing political class. Apart from running around government for patronage perennially, these parasites and pariahs contribute nothing meaningfully to good governance in Nigeria and they always cry blue murder once their stomach infrastructure is threatened. Yeye de smell!
The heightened insecurity occasioned by Boko Haram in the Northern currently could be remotely attributed to some political oafs trying to rattle the Tinubu administration like they did to President Jonathan on the build-up towards the 2015 general elections. Must these so called ‘Protectors’ of the masses not look for something else to engage theirs hands apart from appointments and contracts? The blackmail against Tinubu, so to speak, may have been informed by his diligence, resilience and doggedness to take a shot at the highest office in the land presumed to have been reserved for some exclusive elites whose circle they think he does not belong. Daring to carrying out thought provoking reforms that almost all the Presidential candidates promised to do as reflected in their various manifestoes is a boldness taken too far by the reasoning of those who think they own the country. Because Tinubu is the one implementing the removal of petroleum subsidy and harmonisation of the dual exchange rates is an aberration and a joke taken too far.
May be his approach is adjudged wrong, then who made those judging him experts in governance and if they have any superior way of doing things, let them make such available to the economic team; after-all the country belongs to all of us. According to Harry S. Truman, “it is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who takes the credit out of it”. But I dare say, 24 months into this administration, is too short a time to take this government before the gallows to say the least. What is that exceptional magic wand the current major political gladiators and their minions would have done differently? It is easy to be an expert football player when you are not on the field of play. This is why Samuel Johnson said it is easy to be generous when there is nothing to share and bold when danger is far away.
Let us give the Tinubu administration some space to carry out governance for the four years allocated to it, then we can bring out our marking scheme to score the government based on whatever criteria or barometer we may have set as standard without bias if possible. It is incontrovertible that no coalition can unseat Tinubu come 2027 because the coalition presently is being undertaken by strange bed fellows in a flight route with no compass. If the only agenda is to unseat Jagaban, then their efforts will end up in embarrassment because that attempt is dead on arrival with the exodus into the APC. As a fresh APC Candidate in the 2023 Presidential race, they couldn’t defeat him, what makes them think they can defeat him now, with all the incumbent and resources advantage at his disposal.
Some have advanced the argument that after all as an incumbent Jonathan was defeated. Jonathan’s political sagacity is not in the mould of Tinubu at all. No matter how long a log stays in water it cannot turn to a crocodile. For instance, Buhari was not an example of a good President because the misadventures of that government are still very fresh in our collective remembrance for those not suffering from amnesia and selective recollection. Buhari’s government was an error and should be committed to the forgotten part of our history; and anyone can recall that no coalition was raised against him despite how frustrated we were. Or is it because he belonged to the clientele of those who see the country as their exclusive enclave in share chauvinism? Despite his monumental failures in governance with the North bearing the brunt in terms of the ravaging insecurity that signposted his administration he completed his eight years, and relocated to Kaduna for reasons some attributed to fright and fear for his life in Katsina because of the gravity of how unsafe his own town Daura became before his unfortunate demise.
The Tinubu we know from his success story as Lagos Governor (1999-2007) who was the last man standing in the whirlwind administration of Baba Iyabo the war General will call for outside help if necessary to add speed to some of his reforms and the insecurity imbroglio to calm frayed nerves and build confidence in the polity, and the sanity of the country. Hence, President Trump’s recent intervention in the area of insecurity is a testament to the unwavering commitment of this administration to the sanctity of lives. Isolating the citizenry into camps of aggression instigating all kinds of unwarranted catastrophic situations will not promote development and growth. Here is a heartfelt appeal that all hands should be on deck with him to get us to the desired destination acceptable to all. According to Lynn Austin, smooth seas do not make skilful sailors, it is rough seas that does. The political algorithms of the power hungry elites are the ones pushing all the narratives and dissatisfaction against Tinubu because they are no more in control of the spoils of power. Food no more ready! This is why George Orwell in his book 1984 said: “We know that no one ever seize power with the intention of relinquishing it, power is not a means, it is an end”.
Our collective disposition towards our leaders may force them to think like Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) who said out of frustration that “who said ruling Italians is not impossible, it is merely useless”.
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